Chennai Express Was Not Shah Rukh but a Deepika Film: Rohit Shetty

Rohit Shetty is riding high on the ‘Simmba’ success wave.

Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan on the sets of Chennai Express.

(Photo Courtesy: Red Chillies Entertainment)

Car blasts form the leitmotif of most of Rohit Shetty’s testosterone fuelled action-comedy films. In an interview with Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra, he was asked if he would ever weave a narrative around strong women characters in his films. He replied that for him Chennai Express was a Deepika Padukone led film and that she got the credit for it.

He replied, “For me, Chennai Express was not a Shah Rukh film. People forget that. For me, Golmaal 3 was not an Ajay Devgn film. It was a Kareena Kapoor, Ratna Pathak and Mithun Chakraborty film. That’s how you write. Because it’s a commercial film, people don’t go for that theory. Same way, Chennai Express was Deepika Padukone’s film. And she got the maximum credit also. So it’s not like my heroines are only there for song and dance, it’s never like that. Till today, except for my first film Zameen, I never had an item song in my films.”

Chennai Express and Dilwale marked the collaboration between Rohit Shetty and Shah Rukh Khan. Following the unremarkable business of the latter, there was reportedly a a fallout between the star and Rohit Shetty, who returned to the Devgn camp.

Rohit Shetty is riding high on the wave of the Simmba success. Ranveer Singh’s Simmba crossed the Rs 200 crore mark at the domestic box office on 9 January. It was the last big release of 2018 and one of the three highest grossers of the year.